One Hundred People Gather to Mourn Karen Thomas

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(Memphis) Friends sang and prayed to cope with the loss of Karen Boyd Thomas, who was found dead in the Loosahatchie River earlier this week.

By the steps of Karen Thomas’s alma mater, Northside High School, about a hundred people gathered for a vigil Friday evening.

After many prayers, Thomas’s best friend, Tameka Talley, took the microphone to lighten the mood.

She talked about going to school with Thomas, whom friends called ‘Skinny.’ Talley told News Channel 3 Thomas was a troublemaker in school, who later as an adult, continued to be a rabble-rouser with friends. It was her way of showing love.

“This has been one of the hardest deaths ever in my life. In my life,” Talley told the crowd. “I’m still more speechless than anything.”

Friends found out Terrence Thomas, Karen’s husband, had told police he strangled his wife and dumped her body in the Loosahatchie River.

“I was shocked, and I was really disappointed for a young lady to have gone through this abusive situation for such a long time,” said Claudean Clariette, whose daughter was good friends with Karen Thomas.

Clariette remembers Thomas as a nice girl, who respected her elders.

Now, Clariette is praying for the two Thomas children.

“The children have lost 2 parents,” she said.

Talley said that she got woken up daily by a phone call from Thomas at 6:30.

While she’s holding herself together at the moment, the loss is still hard to bear.

“Unbelievable. I refuse to believe that this has happened. And I still feel as if I’m in a nightmare right now. That somebody’s going to pinch me and wake me up,” she said.

Without the daily call from Thomas, Talley may have to face reality on her own.